MENDON, Mo. (KNX) — A 15-year-old Boy Scout on an Amtrak train traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago said his fight-or-flight instincts kicked in when it derailed Monday, killing four people and injuring more than 100 of the 275 passengers.
Instead of running away from danger for his own safety, he and his fellow Scouts sprang into action, helping people climb out of the wreckage.
Eli Skrypczak and 14 other Boy Scouts were on the train heading home to Appleton, Wis. after the troop had been backpacking in the mountains of New Mexico for 10 days, according to The Washington Post. When the train overturned in the wreck, Skrypczak fell onto some of his friends that were sitting across the aisle from him.
"My seats were the ceiling," Skrypczak told WITI. "I landed onto the other side of the seats as it tipped over."
Dan Skrypczak, Eli's father, was not on the train, but told The Washington Post that his son and other Boy Scouts freed themselves and immediately tried to help people on the train that appeared to have potential spinal cord injuries.
"The adrenaline kicked in, and something took over and I knew what to do," Skrypczak said. "It was unreal. It still doesn’t seem real to me."
The Scouts then did everything they could to help passengers evacuate, even having the presence of mind to protect themselves with shirts before breaking the emergency windows.
"Getting people out of windows and carrying them down," Skrypczak said. "I had to carry a couple kids in my arms, two at a time."
Skrypczak told the Milwaukee-based TV station that he went and tried to help a truck driver he saw lying in a ditch. The man later died.
"First thing I did was get out Boy Scouts and go over to the ditch to a truck driver and aided him with a police officer until he passed," Skrypczak said.
"I started going down, making sure people were good," the 15-year-old added. "I stabilized a couple people on the ground, making sure they didn’t move."
Dan Skrypczak said that he has been getting messages from others involved in the accident who remember his son as the one helping everyone. "Based on what others have told him, Skrypczak estimated his son made 100 trips," according to the Washington Post.
"As a dad and a scoutmaster, I’m unbelievably proud," Dan Skrypczak said.
He went on to tell TODAY that his son was experiencing some types of survivor's guilt after arriving safely back home in Wisconsin, but he made it clear to the teenager that there wasn't anything more he could have done.
"Eli is upset he couldn’t do more. I keep reiterating to him that he did everything he could. The State Highway patrol told him the same thing. There was nothing he could’ve done to save him," Dan Skrypczak said.
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